A-10/9 - 8377 - Software QA Automation Lead - - Contract to Hire - Must be Local to AZ Only

*** Contract to Hire - This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship, either now or in the future. *** Hybrid work model, mostly remote; on-site in Phoenix, AZ for design/whiteboard session as needed. Candidate must currently reside in Arizona – no relocation allowed. Candidate must attend an in-person interview. Candidate must provide AZ Driver’s License as proof of residency. Candidate must use their own personal laptop with a Windows workstation for remote access. Candidate must work AZ time zone business hours. All work must be completed in the United States. Our direct client has an opening for a Software QA Automation Lead # 8377. This position is for 6 months contract to hire and will be worked in a hybrid schedule on-site in Phoenix, AZ as needed – however mostly remote. All work must be completed in the United States. YOUR HOURLY RATE Rate Range is $50-63/hr W2 or $55-67/hr Corp to Corp – Direct with candidate ONLY – No Subcontractors Allowed Resumes Due by Monday, October 13 Required Skills 3+ years in a technical leadership or lead automation engineer role. MUST have Leadership experience Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) using Gherkin or Cucumber JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or Ruby experience Experience with Spring Framework Preferred Skills Grafana experience Container Architecture: Docker or Kubernetes Experience with Azure, AWS, or GCP Maven AI experience Jira Confluence Description Lead the quality platform behind mission-critical software at ASRS. Partner directly with architects to fix today’s framework pain, modernize our stack, and hard-wire a true shift-left culture—while piloting AI-assisted testing to boost coverage, speed, and confidence. What You’ll Do Own the quality platform: Set strategy, architecture, and standards for automation—Java today, with pragmatic evolution to modern UI/API automation where it improves reliability. Embed quality early: Drive PR-level tests, contract/API checks, and CI/CD quality gates for rapid, trusted developer feedback. Apply AI where it counts: Use AI/LLM-assisted test generation, self-healing locators, flake triage, and test-impact analysis to reduce toil and raise signal. Simplify the SDLC: With DevOps, streamline pipelines, test data management, environment provisioning, and release guardrails for faster flow. Solve hard problems with architects: Tackle cross-cutting issues (auth, data, performance, flakiness) and retire tech debt with durable solutions. Build the right tests: Expand reliable web/UI, API, and integration coverage; harden environments and test data. Coach and elevate: Mentor QA engineers, review automation code, and set standards for readability, reliability, and maintainability. Measure what matters: Stand up live dashboards (coverage, pass/fail, flakiness, MTTR) to inform decisions and continuously raise the bar. Own root cause: Lead deep-dive debugging across test and prod, driving prevention—not just fixes. Your Toolbox (What We Use & Value) Languages/Frameworks: Java, JUnit, Maven; BDD with Cucumber/Gherkin. Automation: Selenium WebDriver (today); informed experience with Playwright (Java/TypeScript) a plus. CI/CD & SCM: Jenkins, GitHub Actions; GitHub for collaboration. Observability & Metrics: Grafana (quality and performance dashboards). Backend/Platform context: Spring Boot/Spring Security; Oracle DB; FileNet/content systems. Scripting: PowerShell or similar for utilities. Quality practices: Testing pyramid, risk-based design, code reviews, and environment parity. Where We’re Headed (And Where You’ll Lead) GitHub-native CI/CD: Standardize on GitHub pipelines for frequent, automated deployments—define branch strategy, environment promotions, and reusable workflows that make shipping safe by default. Reliable testing for high velocity: Build a strategy that scales with cadence—PR checks, contract/API tests, fast UI smoke suites, test-impact analysis, deterministic data & ephem v envs, parallelization, and rigorous flake control. AI-assisted, data-driven quality: Apply LLM-assisted test generation/self-healing and enforce quality gates backed by live dashboards (coverage, flakiness, MTTR, DORA) to boost signal and confidence. Framework evolution (tool-agnostic): Evaluate and pilot modern UI/API automation options against clear criteria (reliability, speed, parity, maintainability, ROI) and recommend phased adoption that protects delivery. What You Bring 10+ years in QA/automation with 5+ years leading/architecting frameworks. Proven success embedding automated quality gates into CI/CD for high-velocity releases. Track record mentoring engineers and raising the bar on code quality and test design. Comfort collaborating with architects and senior engineers on systemic quality problems. Nice-To-Have Experience introducing AI tooling (e.g., Copilot, test-gen, self-healing) into real teams. Performance, security, or contract-testing exposure. Work Setup & Logistics Hybrid: Mostly remote; design/whiteboard sessions in Phoenix as needed. Equipment: Personal laptop required; Windows workstation provided for remote access. Eligibility: Must be AZ-local and able to work for any U.S. employer (no sponsorship). #J-18808-Ljbffr Focused HR Solutions, LLC